HOW TO USE THIS RESOURCE
These posts will be organized around the four weeks of Advent, beginning November 28, 2021. There are five entries per week. Each day, you’ll read and mediate on an opening scripture and you’ll confess your sins with a guided prayer of confession and assurance. You’ll then read a Psalm, a selected Old Testament passage, and a New Testament passage. We’ve provided a question for reflection each day to help identify important threads in those scriptures. The scripture readings are intended to compliment the sermon from the previous Sunday.
We’ll also be reading the Apostles Creed and the Lord’s Prayer each day. Why do this? The Apostle’s Creed reminds us of the essence of our faith. We are believers who believe this. There is power in rehearsing over and over the Good News we’ve given our lives to. In praying the Lord’s Prayer, we’re praying the very words Jesus gave to His disciples when they asked, “Lord, teach us to pray.” Christians have been practicing this prayer daily for centuries. It’s good for us to pray as the Lord Himself prayed.
We’ve also provided prayer prompts and space for your own personal requests. As important as it is to pray the words of Jesus, scripture also invites us to “make our requests known to God” (Phil. 4:6). You can use this space to record and pray for any pressing issues in your life or the life of our church.
The final entry of this blog series will be for use on Christmas Day and it will be structured like the other days. You could use this the morning of Christmas before opening gifts or over Christmas dinner with your family or in the quiet, waning moments of Christmas night.
These posts are designed either for personal or family use. It’s our hope that the Spirit will use this to turn our eyes towards Jesus during Advent and Christmas, “the Everlasting Wonder” of the Incarnation -- instead of getting swept up in the parties and commercials and gift-buying and schedule-making and cookie-baking (as wonderful as those things can be).
May Jesus be made known to, in, and through The Church at Greer Station!
Read & meditate
Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!
Luke 2:14
Confession of sin
We are those who sit in darkness, stumbling to find the way of peace. Like ones who lost faith while waiting for a promised king, we have forgotten your promises. We have groaned and grieved, believing that the holy covenant has somehow vanished. In the dark before the dawn, Christ, we struggle to live as children of light. We believe. Father, help our unbelief.
Because of the tender mercy of our God, the sunrise has come from on high. He gives light to those who sit in darkness; who sit in the shadow of death. Blessed be the Son who has shone his heavenly light upon us. You are the morning star, spoken of from old, shattering the night sky before lowly shepherds, and giving sight to those who were blind to their path of destruction. Blessed be the Son who has visited and redeemed his people, and who will return and redeem his people forevermore.
Written by Sarah Gilliam
ASsurance of pardon
To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 1:12-13
scripture reading
Psalm 46 / Isaiah 9:1-7 / Luke 2:1-20 / How does Jesus bring peace?
RECITE THE APOSTLE'S CREED
I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic* Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the
resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
PRAY THE LORD'S PRAYER
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
Personal Prayer
Petitions (requests for yourself – work, decisions, growth in Christ, fighting sin, etc.)
Intercessions (requests for others – our church, the global church, our nation, family, friends, etc.)
Mission (pray for lost friends & family, missionaries, unreached people groups, etc.)
Thanksgiving (gratitude to God for health, blessings, salvation, etc.)
Concluding Prayer
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore. Amen.
*In saying we believe in “the holy catholic Church,” we are confessing our belief in the universal people of God across all times and places (lower-case "c" catholic), not the Roman Catholic Church (big "C" Catholic).